The present invention relates to heat exchangers and more specifically to heat exchanger core configurations.
Improvements in the design and construction of electronics, telecommunications, and optical fiber equipment and systems, have resulted in power densities and temperatures of these equipment and systems to increase. As known to those skilled in the art, typically, as the temperature of the equipment increases, the performance of the equipment, and the system of which the equipment is a part, degrades. As a result thereof, ways to cool the equipment and systems have been sought.
Examples of attempts to cool equipment housed within an equipment enclosure are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,949,218, issued to Blanchard, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,740, issued to Flores, et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,376, issued to Hendrix; U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,743, issued to Sakiura et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,988, issued to Mistry, et al. Common among these patents, is the construction of a heat exchanger or heat exchanging system directly within the enclosure, for the purpose of drawing and/or passing ambient air from outside the equipment enclosure through the enclosure for the purpose of cooling the equipment housed therein. Heat is exchanged through the use of structures that are relatively complicated in construction, and which increase the size, and necessarily the expense, of the enclosure in order to house the telecommunications or electronics equipment and the heat exchange system. Furthermore, these heat exchangers can not meet the demands of today""s high density equipment and systems. Thus, a need exists for a heat exchanger, and particularly a heat exchanger core, that can meet the demands of today""s modern equipment, without complicating the heat exchanger core""s construction, and without overly increasing the size and expense of the heat exchanger core.
A heat exchanger core includes a plurality of sets of fluid passageways extending from a first end of the heat exchanger core to a second end of the heat exchanger core. Each set includes a plurality of fluid passageways. At least one thermally conductive wall extends from the first end of the heat exchanger core to the second end of the heat exchanger core. Each thermally conductive wall is positioned between adjacent sets of fluid passageways. Each thermally conductive wall is configured to separate fluid flow between adjacent sets and configured to separate fluid flow between fluid passageways of one of the adjacent sets. Adjacent thermally conductive walls are configured to separate fluid flow between fluid passageways of a set positioned between the adjacent walls. The heat exchanger core is configured to provide segregated fluid flow between adjacent sets of fluid passageways between the first end and the second end of the heat exchanger core.